The idea of the After Hours Conversations goes back to Professor Piet Hut, Director of the Program in Interdisciplinary Studies at IAS Princeton, who visited FRIAS back in June 2009.

Here's how it works according to Piet: ""At 5:30 pm, someone will give an informal presentation of no more than 10 minutes, intended for a general audience. The topic will be a brief description of a major open problem in his or her field, together with suggestions for possible future progress with respect to that problem. This talk will be followed by 15 minutes of discussion, until 6:00 pm.""

Afterwards everyone is free to stay in the lounge and continue discussions, preferably with others not from their own School.